| "Murder on Music Row" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by George Strait with Alan Jackson from the album Latest Greatest Straitest Hits | ||||
| Released | March 7, 2000 | |||
| Recorded | October 27, 1999 | |||
| Genre | Country | |||
| Length | 4:23 | |||
| Label | MCA Nashville | |||
| Writer | Larry Cordle, Larry Shell | |||
| Producer | Tony Brown | |||
| Latest Greatest Straitest Hits track listing | ||||
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"Murder on Music Row" is a song made popular as a 2000 duet between country music artists George Strait and Alan Jackson. Although not released officially as a single, it gained attention for its criticism of mainstream country music trends at the time, and received enough unsolicited airplay to chart at number 38 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) charts.
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The song is a criticism of the ongoing trend of country pop crossover acts. Its lyrics tell of how "The steel guitar no longer cries and you can't hear fiddles play / But drums and rock and roll guitars are mixed up in your face."[1] In addition, the song states that older traditional country artists, such as Hank Williams, George Jones, and Merle Haggard, "wouldn't stand a chance on today's radio."
American bluegrass group Larry Cordle & Lonesome Standard Time originally recorded by the song as the title track of their 1999 album Murder on Music Row.[2] Their version was awarded the Song of the Year award at the 2000 International Bluegrass Music Awards.[3]
The song was later covered by Country music artists George Strait and Alan Jackson. Originally, the two singers performed the song together at the 1999 CMA awards show;[4] Strait and Jackson later recorded it for 2000's Latest Greatest Straitest Hits album. The studio version, although never released officially as a single, reached number 38 on the Hot Country Songs chart from unsolicited play and served as the b-side to Strait's late-2000 single "Go On."[5] In 2000, it also received the Country Music Association's award for Vocal Event of the Year,[6] as well as the CMA's Song of the Year award a year later.[2][7]
| Chart (2000) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks | 38 |
| Canadian RPM Country Tracks | 47 |
In 2006 Dierks Bentley and George Jones recorded a version of the song that was included on the album Songs of the Year 2007 that was only available in Cracker Barrel restaurants.
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